District Workshops
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Topic of Discussion: High Quality Instruction for All Students
Topic and questions are sponsored by the CUBE Racial Isolation Task Force.
The participants in this workshop met with school board members of similar-size districts to discuss how the district is making specific improvements to support high quality education for all students. The discussion questions follow:
• How has the emphasis on accountability through standardized testing affected your district’s curriculum and instruction? Has there been a shift to ensuring student performance on standardized tests as opposed to ensuring they acquire higher order learning and reasoning skills? Have you dropped enrichment programs?
• Are there differences in curriculum emphasis or direction according to student subgroups that fail to make adequate yearly progress for NCLB purposes?
• Has your district undertaken any comparative analysis between low performing and high performing schools within your district? If so, what differences have you found, if any, between their curricula, instructional methodologies, quality of teachers, etc.?
• What are some of the best practices your district uses to ensure that all students are provided an opportunity to acquire a high quality education?